PA's success story
 

I have seen 11 bear since April, more than the total number of deer I have seen on public land in the same time span. Makes me wonder what impact these bears are having on our fawn numbers. I wonder if raising the bear population to the level it is at was the best idea. It seems to benefit the minority while the game animal most of us hunt loses out again. I enjoy seeing all types of wildlife and enjoy seeing a bear just as much as anything else but not where I deer hunt. I bought a bear tag for the 2nd year now, not because I love bear sausage or because I desperately need another mounted animal in the house but because I feel reducing their numbers is now necessary. If I get one, nothing will go to waste and I will have another taxidermy bill but I will be aiming for one different than the one below pictured.

I would like to know... How many other hunters are beginning to hunt bear and why? According to our PA Hunting Digest, last year was the 2nd highest bear harvest on record in PA. I just don't feel we need their population any higher, especially when all but 2 of these bear I have seenhave been in residential areas. It would appear the habitat isn't supporting them and now they are dependent on bird feeders and trash cans more than ever.

This is the smallest one on it's ownI have seen this year and I see him often, just about every time I go to my food plot. The feeder has since been removed with hopes he will move on. He's cool to watch and just a little guy, probably not going to inflict too much damage this year but next year and the year after guaranteed he will have his fill of fawn. What is the most tags anyone has seen in a bear's ears? I believethis onehas been trapped twice now, correct?

RE: PA's success story
 

While bears certainly contribute to the non-hunting mortality, they are not responsible for the decrease in the herd, The PGC could reduce the antlerless tags to offset the effects of bear predation if they wanted higher deer densities, but that is not what they want.

RE: PA's success story
 

Hopefully, they NEVER seek higher deer densities.

RE: PA's success story
 

Why would you say that when the habitat and the deer have shown that we can have 1.6M healthy deer?

RE: PA's success story
 

It's funny you should mention this 4evrhtn, bears have been on the increase on our land and fawn sightings are down. A few of the guys are buying bear tags, not because they really want a bear (although, like you it would not go wasted) but because they fell like they need to cut our numbers as we have seen more bear lately.

RE: PA's success story
 

There is no question that bears, coyote, bobcat, fox and even raccoon will kill new born fawns when they stumble onto them or otherwise find one they can catch pretty easily. It is also a fact that where fawns have suitable habitat predation is not a significant factor in limiting deer populations. Fawn predation can be significant where deer don’t have suitable ground cover or under story though. So, fawn survival rates are pretty much a matter of the habitat being able to support more deer or not. If the habitat can’t support more deer it is a blessing for the future of the species if a higher percentage of the fawns fall victim to predation.

People also prey on fawns. I know of several fawns that are now dead because people captured them and took them home. In fact, I will be filing charges on one such case next week and have another active investigation of a car load of teenagers catching a fawn, putting it in a car and taking off. I’m still working on that one.

All bears get two tags the first time they are captured. Bears, especially males, tend to fight and rip tags out, so we put one in each ear to make sure it they lose one we still have one to allow us to collect the past capture history. If we catch a bear with a tag missing we replace it with a new tag. I just caught a 250 pound male with one tag missing a couple weeks ago. He left with one old tag and one new tag.

R.S. Bodenhorn

RE: PA's success story
 

Fawn survival rates have nothing to do with the ability of the habitat to support more deer. In every WMU ,the harvest by hunters determines how many deer survive to the following year and that in turn determines how many fawns are recruited into next years herd.

RE: PA's success story
 

You can not be serious with this comment. If you are, obviously you have a major social disorder that can not accept direction from authority.

Habitat has nothing to do to support increase in numbers of a species?!?!? Incredible BB2, even from your lips.

As far as why would I not want to see deer densities increase: Personally, I think they are fine just the way they are. Only change I would like to see is improvements to access to those rascals.

RE: PA's success story
 

That isn't even close to what I said. Here is what I said,

Fawn survival rates do not determine the MSY CC of the habitat nor do they determine how many fawns survive. The number of fawns that survive each year is determine by the number of fawns harvested.
So you don't want your fellow hunters to be able to harvest more deer even if the habitat could support more. That is a rather selfish attitude.

RE: PA's success story
 

Thanks for the info! As far as the habit on the land in the pic.... I have 2 1/2 acres of Timothy Hay/Weed mix(from horse manure being spread)that is 4 to 5foot high. I will be leaving it stand until the end of this month reason being I have seen doe lead their young into this thick stuff and until the little onescan travel and keep up with mom I want to reduce the chances of them being preyed upon.

Also, another question.. Last year the majority of the bears had been denning up before the bear season started due to lack of food. Why doesn't the PAGC hold out on deciding season dates for bear based off variables such as predicted accessibility to food- acorn harvest. It seems everything is in place as it is to ensure the bear population continues to grow to levels that aren't ideal for all game species including bears themselves.Or is it the goal to have our bear population grow even larger?It's hard to reduce their numbers in an effective way when most of them are denning up and not moving to save calories rather than expend more calories searching for food than they will replace prior to us hunters having the ability to hunt them.

RE: PA's success story
 

4evrhtn
I have got my bear tag the last couple years. When they started letting us hunt them in the first leg of deer season. Only have seen one little cub while hunting the last few.when i can kill them . But i didnt he was just a little fella probably only weighed 50 60 pounds. I dont go out for just bear very often. there meat just isnt my cup of tea.
Thou it wouldnt go to waste. And the wife doesnt think i need more taxidermy in the house. I beg to differ

RE: PA's success story
 

Your lack of knowledge concerning the realities of nature is showing once again.

Hunters simply can’t ever harvest fawns that die within days of being born. Some studies have shown that fawn mortality in poor habitat can be as high as 92.9% from just nutritional factors and before predation even gets to play into reducing the number of fawns even more.

Hunters will not only not harvest those dead fawns in their first year of life but never in their second, third or later years either.

You simply have no idea what you are talking about when you make such ridiculous comments.
R.S. Bodenhorn

RE: PA's success story
 

Late standing hay fields are great for improving not only fawn recruitment rates but also rabbit and pheasant populations. Thank you for considering the wildlife in your farming practices. I wish more landowners gave wildlife such consideration.

Bear season is structured for a time period that is intended to have most of the bred females in their dens (they are first to den) along with a high percentage of the sows with cubs also being denned. Sows with cubs are the second bears to den though the number of them denned is very dependant on the amount of available food during any given year.
There are always years when we have more bears denned then is desirable to bring the populations down to the desired level. But, there are also years when we have a good mast crop that we might harvest more bears then desired in some areas too. It all kind of equals out in the long term management of the species and bear populations are pretty stable in most of the traditional range.
Bear populations are of course expanding into areas that once didn’t have bears, much as the deer populations have already done. That of course increases the statewide bear harvests while sometimes resulting in lower harvests in some of the old traditional big woods bear areas.
I believe we will probably see some expansion of the areas open to bear harvests during the first week of the concurrent deer seasons. Some hunters fear that will result in over harvest and the detriment of bear populations. I actually think it might have the opposite affect in many areas for the following reasons.
Where we have bear season run concurrent with the deer season fewer hunters take off work to hunt during the traditional three day statewide bear season and of course that lowers the bear harvest during those three days on those areas. That week then means even more of the bred sows and sows with cubs will avoid being harvested and be denned before the deer season occurs. That would then increase the harvest on the older male bears that tend to be out roaming later into the fall. That thus provides more hunting opportunities without adversely affecting the long term bear populations. Of course if there is any indication the longer bear season is adversely affecting an area the season can always be shortened as needed, just as recently occurred in parts of the northeast.
R.S. Bodenhorn

RE: PA's success story
 

Thanks Again, I am new to bear hunting and I am just scratching the surface of what I need to know about them in order to hunt them effectively.

RE: PA's success story
 

Yeah, I had the same luck last year. I saw bear on different occassions before the season came in but after that not a one.

RE: PA's success story
 

More signs of the PGCs succesful bear management program.

http://www.bradfordpa.info/?p=721

[/align][/align]http://www.tiogapublishing.com/articles/2009/07/02/news/doc4a4b98cc06483364431343.txt[/align][/align]
A bear in the air








(photo by KELLY STEMCOSKY) This bruin headed for high ground, climbing a tree on Main Street, Wellsboro on Monday evening. The animal was subsequently tranquilized, captured and eventually destroyed because of its aggressive tendencies.[/align][/align]
by Kelly Stemcosky
[email protected]
Published: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 12:24 PM CDT[/align]A bear found its way up a tree around 8:30 p.m. Monday night, June 30, in front of Subway on Main Street in Wellsboro.

Crowds of people watched from the sidewalk as the borough police, members of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Game Commission worked to get the bear down safely.

Jacob Brink, 11, and Branden Enck, 10, said they saw the bear near Austin and Purple Streets just minutes before.

“It was walking right down Purple [Street]. It was huge,” said Brink.
[/align][/align]

RE: PA's success story
 

Actually, handled right, black bear is extremely good table fare!!
You do have totrim outevery last bit of fat and cook it thoroughly but it can be fantastic. :D

The fat is the enemy. One bite of bear fat and you'll never want another bite[:'(]

RE: PA's success story
 

Having worked in Taxidermy and skinning so many different animals I would compare bear flesh to that of a ground hog in smell. It's tough for me to get past that after having skinned so many of them. I will take your word on the table fare, don't need to prove you right. I will donate any meat from any bear I shoot to someone who enjoys it.

RE: PA's success story
 

If I find my dog getting attacked by a bear I will shoot first and worry about the consequences later. I am not going to wait for the police or anyone else to do it if I can save myhunting partner and best friend. My neighbor's goats had been killed by a black bear not too long ago. I do not feed bears, so they don't become dependent on mysupplied feedand less fearful of people resulting in cases such as these. Butbears are definitely increasing in numbers whilehabitat and resources are being reduced. Conflicts like these will undoubtedly increase. I feel we have enough bear and do not need their population to grow any further (at least in my area).

RE: PA's success story
 

AMEN! They don't smell so good! Mostly it seems to be the hide that smells but the fat is disgusting too.

My first experience with bear meat came several years ago when I shotmy first bear. While watching me skin it when my dad asked me what I was going to do with the meat. Since I've never been much for killing things and wasting them, I told him I was going togive it a good try and if it wasn't any good, I'd at least feed it to my dog. The dog never saw a bite!!!

I'd bet that we didnt get 75 lbs of meat from a 300 pound bear oncewe trimmed out all the fat. It hadseveral inches of fatacross the back and was a nightmare to butcher but the meat was fantastic.

We made sausage by mixing 60/40 bear/pork and did roasts by cooking em very slow on low heat. Never had anyone try it and not aks for some more.

RE: PA's success story
 

I have had bear several times and dont care if i ever give it another try . Glad some have better luck with it thou

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Bear didn't turn me on either. But i liked hunting them and i had guys in my group that would take the meat, sooooo another opportunity to have fun in the woods. Never got one but as modst bear hunters storries "should have been here last year"

RE: PA's success story
 

You're right about the fat, it is nasty stuff and the smell clings to you. If the person who shot the bear attempted to remove most of the fat when skinning it by cutting close to the meat, I have found that for every 100 pounds the bears weigh I can usually fill at least a5 gallon bucket with fat and that isn't trimming the meat. A 600 pounder would be a mess to flesh and I wouldn't want that job. When it comes to fleshing them on the board the whole area turns as slick as an ice skating rink. If the hide is cooled it is alot easier but when room temp the fat literally melts.

Did you add alot of seasoning to the sausage when you made it? I know it has to take more than what is normally used in deer sausage. Have you ever tried bear sausage mixeditalian seasoning and then smoked? If I do shoot one and decide to attempt to eat a bit this is how I will probably will do it using the same pork /bear ratio you mentioned.

RE: PA's success story
 

Both bears I killed and butchered myself were quartered and nearly frozen before the butchering began. The fat is easy to trim when chilled to the point of being very firm and that helps termendously with that smell.

All of the sausages deer and bear that we make are somewhat spicy.
The bear sausage we made was doneusing all my deer sausage recipes without any changes. One mix we use is a little bit hot (but mild enough that most kids and women will eat it too) and utilizes a little liquid smoke. Another favorite I have used is an old German Christmas sausage recipe that does require a true cure and several hours in the smoker. Cabelas Chorizo seasoning mix isanother very good one.

If you want, I can get the wife to dig up the recipes and I can email em to you or post em here.

RE: PA's success story
 

Sure, send me a PM or whatever. The wife is always looking for new wild game recipes, especially for game that has more of a wild flavor to it such as goose.
We took the kids out to eat the other week at a burger and steak house and the youngest 2 ordered burgers. When they bit into them they said "what is this meat? It tastes weird."They have been eating venison for so long that domestic burger is foreign to them. I thought it was funny... Beef has become exotic to them. They also prefer pheasant over chicken.Too bad we don't have a wild pheasant population like we used to. Going to the Game farms to train the dogs and acquire more meat gets expensive.

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Will dig em up and get em to you.

Enjoy!!!

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I don't know what happened in this particular case, but something dramatic happened. This spring a farmer was seeing 11 fawns coming into his fields on a regular basis. Then almost from no where bear started showing up and the fawn count started dropping off till now he sees only ONE fawn. Between the bobcats, coyotes and bear it seems that alot of the fawns have been eliminated. I am not saying that all ten of the missing fawns have been killed, but I'll wager a good portion of them have been. The PGC did a fawn mortality impact study awhile back but I don't know what were the end results. I too have seen more bear than deer during turkey and deer season a couple of times.

btb can you post your recipe or send it to me

Sure will. Been away a few days and haven't dug it up ( or to be more accurate, asked the wife where se keeps it) yet but I'll get it done in the next coupla days :s2: